A LOCAL dog walker smashed a car’s windows in attempt to rescue a man from the fume-filled vehicle.

At around 7.50pm on Saturday, June 13, Mr Ian Luther visited a nature reserve at Tidenham near the Offa’s Dyke Path.

But Mr Luther, a well-known local musician, noticed a blue Rover car with piping running from the exhaust into the boot and that the windows were steamed up, an inquest into the death of Andrew Ralph of Yate heard..

Sergeant Grace Samuel said: "Mr Luther removed the piping and saw a man slumped over in the vehicle. He managed to break a window with a tyre lever.

"Mr Luther then pulled Mr Ralph from the vehicle and tried to phone the police, but was unable to do so due to lack of phone signal.

"Another couple returning to the car park did however, manage to raise the alarm at 8pm with both the police and ambulance services.

"The police arrived within minutes and performed CPR on Mr Ralph until the paramedics took over, but Dr Godfrey formally confirmed that he had died at 8.46pm."

Sgt Samuel noticed that car had been reversed into the parking spot and that the car had been sealed from the outside. Mr Ralph had left a yellow post-it note on the dashboard saying ’I Love You’.

Sgt Samuel concluded that there was no third party involvement in Mr Ralph’s death nor were there any suspicious circumstances.

Assistant coroner for Gloucestershire Roland Wooderson gave a verdict of suicide in relation to the death of 40-year-old Mr Ralph.The Gloucester inquest was told that a post mortem had been carried out by Dr Rahul Fulmani who confirmed that Mr Ralph died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mr Ralph, 40, of Stanshawe Crescent, Yate, was reported missing on Wednesday, June 10 this year and was still alive two days later when he talked to his parents and the police on the phone.

Sgt Samuel told the inquest that Andrew’s mother, Janet Ralph, called police on June 10 saying she had last seen him at 8.30am that morning when he left the house with ‘something hidden under his fleece.’

“Later that evening John Wilcox, Mr Ralph’s boss, rang Andrew’s parents expressing his concern that he had not attended (a) meeting as requested at 6pm and he told them that he felt he was acting out of character.

“He said that Andrew felt that everyone was against him. Both Mr Wilcox and Andrew’s parents tried to contact him by phone, but were unsuccessful. They contacted the police to report him being missing and officers put an alert out for him.”

On June 12, police went to motor mechanic Mr Ralph’s home believing he had returned home, but his mother informed them that he hadn’t returned.

Sgt Samuel said: “However, the police did manage to get in contact with Mr Ralph on the phone later that day, and he told them he was still driving around trying to clear his head. He was asked if he had any suicidal thoughts and told the officer he didn’t.

“He explained that he’d been driving around and had spent the night sleeping in his car in Berkeley. The police advised Mr Ralph to go to a police station for a welfare check because they felt he was having a mental breakdown.”

Assistant coroner for Gloucestershire Roland Wooderson said: “Sadly the facts speak for themselves. It is under these very sad circumstances Mr Ralph took his own life.